Yeah, this line has been a little frustrating to collect. They front loaded the line with all of these different Thors, but not so much of the other characters. Thankfully I was able to get Vostagg today, so I've got all of the Warrior's Three. But I'm still on the lookout for Laufey, King Loki and Sif.

I think we can *PROBABLY* understand some of the methodology about the wave lineups. In some cases the studios are probably trying to keep some story points under wraps, and that may include the toy line. But that logic was flawed in the case of Iron Man 2. We saw Whiplash in the trailers for that film. And there was no armored Whiplash figure that might have been a spoiler for the movie. It's all very strange.

I think you're right, Nick, that there's a certain amount of secrecy in these lines but they really don't need it anymore. Especially with how much about a movie gets out online these days, there aren't a ton of secrets for people unless they really stay away from spoilers. But in that case, I don't think a toy line is going to blow anything.

There might also be another issue also, and that's the lead time on the production of the figures. They have to be in production while the movies are still filming and on some of these superhero films that have a ton of CGI work, Hasbro, Mattel and the other companies may just not know exactly what a character will look like until it's too late to get them into the first wave or two.

The original Elan Sleazbagano in the AOTC line had ears that Hasbro had to remove because Lucas, or someone, updated the character's look after Hasbro was already producing the fig. It happens, and it probably happens more on secondary characters than the main.

Still, it's really frustrating to see a line like Thor or Captain America launch and it's all the hero with no variety. Still, neither of those lines was as bad as Iron Man 2. That line is a model for what not to do, ever, with a toy line.

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"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

Secrecy or not, there's no reason why certain comic figures can't be included in earlier waves rather than the 12th version of Thor. I seriously cannot imagine anyone who wants 12 different versions of the same guy. Iron Man might be the only exception to that based on all of his different armor varieties, but cosmic Thor or Thor with & without helmet? That's just dumb. They could have put in so many different characters from the books, or even put out comic versus movie editions of Odin, Loki, the warriors three, etc. Heck, if you're worried about secrecy then why not put out comic baddies to keep fans guessing as to who really is and isn't in the film. If they had put more Iron Man villians out (Spymaster, Ghost, Blizzard, Living Laser, etc.) then see Whiplash and Hammer as the only real villians would have been a surprise. I get not putting the Hammer drones out in an early wave, but there are many more options than 12 varieties of the hero character.

I suspect that it may be the movie studios that are contractually dictating which characters can be revealed in figure form in the terms of the master toy license. Toy licenses don't merely allow the licensee (like Hasbro) to produce whatever they want from the film.

There is a licensing approval process, and that's something we've seen over the years in Lucasfilm's relationship with Hasbro. Street dates, likenesses and marketing schedules are all elements which get agreed upon by both the studio/production company and the licensee. It may very well be the same with Marvel Studios and Hasbro, too.

In the case of the more recent Thor figures, I'm seriously wondering if Hasbro was holding back stock for the release of the DVD. Namely, because Target has a special Marvel movie display piece in the DVD sales department for DVD's, BluRays as well as Captain America and Thor figures.